Coach`s `Encouragement` Launches Linebacker Toward Stardom

On a hot August afternoon two years ago, Mark Nigro decided to forgo part of his Willowbrook High School football team`s first workout in pads. He was hot. He was tired. And he was worried.

``I screwed up my knee playing basketball my sophomore year, so I was wondering if there would be any problems with football,`` Nigro recalled.

The biggest problem he had, however, was with Willowbrook head coach Clint Evans. Evans saw Nigro on the sidelines, barked at him to get back into action and after practice had an eyeball-to-eyeball conversation with the player.

``He told me that I could be all-this and all-that, that I had all the tools to be great, but that I had to push myself,`` Nigro said.

The tongue-lashing turned around Nigro`s career. Two years later, the 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound linebacker is an all-state and All-America selection as well as one of Notre Dame`s most prized football recruits.

He is also one of the key players for the South team in the second annual North-South Suburban all-star game, to be played at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at North Central College in Naperville.

``My problem was more mental than physical,`` said Nigro. ``I grew up too quickly, physically, and I was forced to wear casts on both knees when I was 12 years old. I was told by doctors I probably shouldn`t take part in sports for at least a year, but I didn`t even bother about that.``

Nigro was always the biggest kid on his block in Lombard. He weighed 125 pounds by the time he was 10. ``I was too heavy to play football in any of the leagues, but I still played all the sports I could,`` he said.

As he grew, the pain developed in both knees. ``I was growing so quickly, the tendons would pull away from the bone,`` he said. ``That`s when I had to have casts on my knees for six weeks.``

Actually, the original casts lasted only three weeks. ``I broke both of the casts playing football,`` said Nigro. ``I was not supposed to be doing that, and my parents certainly weren`t happy about it.``

The casts came off and Nigro paid no attention to the warnings about staying away from sports. ``When I entered high school, I wanted to do everything in every sport--football, basketball and baseball,`` he said.

But it was football that drew his interest. ``I always knew it would be my first love,`` he said. ``After all, there aren`t too many calls for a 6-3 forward in college basketball, and even though I liked baseball, I wanted more action.``

Last season, Nigro made every postseason all-star list. He was one of three linebackers selected to The Tribune`s ``Super 22`` All-State team.

Nigro was also a left-fielder and pitcher for the Willowbrook baseball team. He hit more than .400 his senior year.

In the classroom, Nigro was as outstanding as he was on the football field. He finished with a 3.78 grade-point average and was an academic All-America pick. ``It`s not that tough,`` he said with a smile, ``when your mom`s pushing you.``

Kathy Nigro refused to let her son`s studies slide. ``When I`d come home after practice, I`d eat supper, and then my mother made me do my schoolwork,`` Mark said. ``I couldn`t go to bed until I had it done.``

That intensity of purpose may be a reason Notre Dame assistant coach George Kelly went after Nigro. ``But then I always thought about going to Notre Dame,`` Nigro said. ``It was always my first choice. Coaches from Illinois told me I was their No. 1 linebacking recruit, but then I talked to a couple of other players who were also told they were No. 1 at Illinois. That bothered me.``

Nigro is only one of seven members of The Tribune`s All-State team who will play in the North-South game. Other South All-State players are Romeoville`s tandem of running back Chuck McCree and receiver Mike Burries, Downers Grove South nose guard Mike Lambke and tackles John Jurkovic of Thornton Fractional North and Jim Poynton of Marian Catholic.